In a 5-4 decision slong what would be party lines if we acknowledged the de facto ones, the U.S. Supreme Court found most current federal laws limiting campaign contributions by business in violation of the first ammendment and therefore, unconstitutional. The decision makes sense at all only if we remember that by U.S. law, a corporation is treated as a person on matters of first ammendment rights.

Lobbyists, business and trade unions are no free–mostly, a few provisions remain–to spend as much as they want whenever they want to influence federal elections, and you can bet your boots they’ll spend a lot to see to it that candidates partial to the interests of business, even, maybe especially, when the interests of large, wealthy corporations are at odds with the interests of the citizens.

The decision overruled two earlier Supreme Court decisions and ignores 100 years of lawmaker’s attempts to limit the influence of Big Money on federal elections and will change how elections are conducted. The Washington Post has a good analysis of potential consequences here.